New film shows Kennedy’s Nov. 1963 visit to Houston

President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy joined Vice President Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson for a LULAC function at the Rice Hotel on Nov. 21, 1963. Beaming, Jacqueline Kennedy told the group in Spanish: “I’m very happy to be in the great state of Texas.”

The Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas recently acquired footage of President John F. Kennedy’s Nov. 21, 1963, visit to Houston.

The footage — taken one day before his assassination in Dallas — shows the president and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy at the Rice Hotel for a League of United Latin American Citizens function. Vice President Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson were also at the Rice Hotel that evening.

According to the museum:

The film was recently donated to the Museum by Roy Botello who, at the time, served as the first Scholarship Corporation Chairman of LULAC in San Antonio. He brought along his home movie camera that evening and captured silent color film of the Kennedy arrival, welcoming dignitaries, a mariachi band and both Kennedys addressing the crowd.

The Kennedys also stopped by the Sam Houston Coliseum to attend a dinner for U.S. Rep. Albert Thomas. From there, the president’s entourage departed Houston International Airport for Fort Worth.